RainFern's June 2015 Update : Live Fishfood Journal

RainFern's June 2015 Update

Live Fishfood Journal

*** Aquatic Pond Life used as Live Fishfood and other Aquatic live FishFoods



Bloodworms/Midges (Chironomidae)

I've always loved using live bloodworms and of course my fish love eating them! Their breeding process makes them almost impossible to breed indoors. During their adult phase, they fly around in search of a mate and a place to lay their eggs and it's during this time that breeding them indoors would pose an issue. Who wants to have bugs, flying around their house or work space (even if they are harmless bugs).

Bloodworm larvae morph into "midges", or non-biting midges when they molt into adults.

Midges look a lot like mosquitoes, although they have a "fuzzy mouth" versus a mosquitoes sharp piercing needle-like mouth. Midges can't bite you, They are absolutely, 100% harmless. While mosquitoes spread disease and cause infections and allergic reactions, making them awful bugs. Midges are harmless and they make a great live fishfood when they are in their larval stage. Midges an their larvae (bloodworms) are god bugs, in my opinion.

***NOTE : I'm actually going to try a few different methods and see if I can't breed bloodworms indoors. This is such a hard task! It seems impossible. It's definitely challenging. Don't worry, I'll keep you updated 100% of the way.***

Although I am trying to breed bloodworms. I still catch a few from my ponds, a couple times a week and feed them to my larger, more aggressive, carnivorous fish.



Mosquito Larvae

Now this is one species that I would never try to breed! I absolutely despise these little disease-spreaders! I like most animals, but mosquitoes, I just don't like them! The only effective form of mosquito control I have found is GOLDFISH. When the mosquito is in it's larval period, it is very likely to get eaten by any goldfish in the body of water.

When ever I set up a pond, I fill it up with water. Then I let the water sit for a few days so any chlorine evaporates and t make sure the water is safe for fish. Sometimes, in about 4 days, the water can already have mosquito larvae in it. This is a great time to toss in a handful of newly bought goldfish from the fishstore. Most of your goldfish will survive (as opposed to the normal fish store fish die-off that you'd expect) and most of your goldfish will thrive. I find this scenario to be rare, but when it happens, I get the most massive and robust goldfish. These fish always get so big and healthy, that it's hard to believe that I bought them as feeder goldfish from a petstore.



Scuds

I have a few tanks with booming populations of scuds. Scuds are related to shrimp, and are often referred to as "shrimp-like creatures". I can't tell you how much I love scuds, just know that it is a lot! I am a huge fan of scuds and all kinds of little fun aquatic critters!



Freshwater Ghost Shrimp

I just bought a batch of Feeder Ghost Shrimp. I got a healthy mix, after the inevitable store-shrimp "die off", I am left with about 25 healthy juveniles and 10 pregnant females and about 15 healthy adult males. The plan of course, is to breed these shrimp. I hope to have an endless supply of healthy ghost shrimp to use as live fishfood.  (As usual, I'll keep you updated. Breeding Ghost Shrimp is always a fun project!)



To make up for a pretty tragic die-off that I had, I also plan on buying some california blackworms and breeding them soon and maybe also some daphnia. I love aquatic live fishfoods, they are obviously useful and always so interesting that they stand up to being the main attraction in some cases.



*** Dry Live FishFoods (Animals that don't live in water.)



Flour Beetles

I always have flour beetles and flour beetle larvae on hand to use as live fishfood. I feed the larvae to my fish as a livefood treat and I use the adult beetles as breeders to create more larvae. Flour Beetles are by far the easiest live fishfood to keep going forever, in my opinion.



Mealworms

I've had a few healthy colonies of mealworms for about a year now. I use them the same way as I use Flour Beetle Larvae, However, they are larger, so I feed them t larger, more aggressive fish.



Crickets

I've had a small population of crickets for about a year, they have had quite a few "batches" f eggs that hatched successfullly. The baby crickets are all different sizes and some of them are adults. M cricket colony is slowly getting larger, but it's not large enough yet for me to feed any of the crickets to may fish. I hope no one brings me a homeless frog!!! (I don't have the crickets, on hand, to feed a homeless frog!)



Mice

I'm still volunteering (occasionally) at a local breeding facility for "live feeder mice". I'm using the experience to "gain experience". As I am also working with reptiles. I am learning a lot and getting exposed to rare animals. (For example : I've gotten many chances to work with a huge Iguana. Which I really enjoyed, of course!)



Until Next Time!
((( RainFern )))